How to Create Your Own Manifesto: with 3 Gorgeous Examples to Inspire You

Why Create Your Own Manifesto?

It is clarifying to body, mind and soul when you take a few minutes to ponder what really matters to you and how you want to live your life aligned with your true desires.

Why? Because creating a manifesto starts with critical thinking: What do I want to create and how will I express it? What matters most to me? Given all that I’ve experienced in life, what do I stand for now?

These questions invoke emotion, and emotion is like rocket fuel for your thoughts. Combine powerful emotion with critical thinking, and Boom! You’ve got a potent cocktail, a recipe for what success means to you.

Your true desires are totally unique to you. What you really, really, really want is not random. Your desires are specific and connected to your higher purpose. This is the feeling of being on purpose and filled with passion for life is what the soul craves.

Creating a manifesto isn’t so much about doing and grand gestures. Your own manifesto is a reflection of who you long to be and captures what exactly makes you feel most fulfilled.

When you create your own manifesto, you create a strong and bold statement from your higher self. This is the part of you that rises above circumstance and surface drama (and victimhood) and looks for the beauty, opportunity or lessons in the stuff of life.

Creating your own manifesto gives you an at-a-glance aligned action plan, and a way to center yourself in your daily life, because you are ultimately asking yourself: Who do I want to practice being?

“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back.

Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees.

Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here.

Daring to be Yourself

Whatever age girl you are now, I recommend you pick up a copy, underline the passages that speak the most to you. Let that girl you that is still inside find solace.

Then, if you feel brave, share this book with the girls in your life: daughters, nieces, sisters, aunts, mothers, grandmothers. The women you are related to, and those who are your soul friends.

“I am older now. I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different, with being this alive, this intense. I just don’t want you to have to wait that long.”

What is a Manifesto?

Manifestos have long been used as political statements, and then adopted by artistic movements as a kind protest against the established “rules” of their time. This is my interpretation of a manifesto. Feel free to google is you want more research and facts. 🙂

The first I ever heard of a manifesto was The Surrealist Manifesto by french writer Andre Breton, which I eagerly absorbed as a teenager.

My Early Journaling Influences

The Surrealists encouraged stream-of-conscious writing, and so that’s exactly how I wrote in my journals.

Years later, when working with Julia Cameron (before she wrote The Artist’s Way), she encouraged us to write the same way, a stream-of-conscious brain dump is what she called it then. Later, these became the famous “morning pages”.

The Benefits of Creating Your Own Manifesto

Wouldn’t it be nice to have your very own manifesto? Something you could look at and find encouragement when you feel out of sorts. Something that helps you stay the committed to your path when things block your way. A way to make decisions based on your ideals, rather than out of desperation or reaction.

Those are just some of the benefits of having your own manifesto. Here are some examples to inspire you.

3 Gorgeous Manifesto Ideas to Inspire Your Own

1. Lululemon Manifesto

If you do yoga, or just like to wear yoga clothes (LOL), you’ve likely come across the motivational manifesto on the shopping bags and postcards of yoga apparel retailer Lululemon.

According to Lululemon’s website:

“Our manifesto is one way we share our culture with the community. It’s an evolving collection of bold thoughts that allow for some real conversations to take place.”

Bold thoughts and real conversations? I’m in!

2. Sister Corita Kent’s Immaculate Heart College Studio Rules

While not officially a manifesto, the following studio rules were created by artist Sister Corita Kent as part of a project at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles where she taught in the 1960’s.

The full text of Sister Corita’s studio rules are here:

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

3. The Holstee Manifesto

The first thing Holstee’s founders, Dave, Mike and Fabian did when they started their company, was to write out how they define success:

“The goal was to create something they could reflect back on if they ever felt stuck or found themselves living according to someone else’s definition of happiness.”

Since they first penned their manifesto in 2009, it’s become widely shared across the Internet.

Holstee Manifesto Text:

“This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love. Stop over analyzing, life is simple. All emotions are beautiful. When you eat, appreciate every last bite. Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people, we are united in our differences. Ask the next person you see what their passion is, and share your inspiring dream with them. Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself. Some opportunities only come once, seize them. Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them so go out and start creating. Life is short. Live your dream and share your passion.”

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Hola! I'm Lisa Sonora. ME: an American artist and author living in Mexico. YOU: Crave more creativity, more meaning, more adventures — and are tired of the same old stuff getting in your way. Creativity + Travel + Courage has been the theme of my blog since 2002, and sums up my life mission: to dare to make my life a creative adventure and to help women create more, stress less, and take meaningful, once-in-a-lifetime creative journeys. Welcome to my virtual studio. It’s messy in here.
But not as messy as my real studio. My real studio is located in Oaxaca, Mexico, and you’re invited to come visit and create.